Voting Station

Benjamin Lundy

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Advocate

The Resume

    (January 4, 1789-August 22, 1839)
    Born in Hardwicke Township, New Jersey
    Quaker abolitionist
    Published 'The Genius of Universal Emancipation' (1821)
    Newspaper publisher and anti-slavery lecturer

Why he might be annoying:

    He is sometimes wrongly called 'The First Abolitionist.'
    He promoted trying to colonize newly freed slaves in Canada, Haiti, and parts of West Africa.
    His Wikipedia page more bluntly reads: 'Lundy was committed to schemes of colonization abroad.'
    He clashed with William Lloyd Garrison over Garrison's more radical tactics.
    This eventually resulted in the two (amicably) parting ways after Garrison finished his jail sentence, and in Garrison starting the more effective anti-slavery newspaper 'The Liberator.'
    He hired multiple assistants to keep his anti-slavery paper going, but its publishing regularity still faltered and it folded in 1835.
    He began another newspaper based in Philadelphia, but it too stopped scheduled publications and quickly fell into financial trouble.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was taught to be opposed to slavery at a young age.
    While working as a saddle maker in Virginia, he witnessed the slave trade for the first time, thus beginning his career in abolitionism.
    He is credited with reviving the waning abolitionist movement by establishing The Union Humane Society, which sought gradual emancipation of slaves through legislation and providing aid to freed slaves.
    While he was on a trip to Haiti, his wife, Esther, died in childbirth, leaving him the widowed father of twins.
    When he was speaking at an anti-slavery gathering at Pennsylvania Hall, an angry mob set fire to the building and destroyed much of his written work.
    When he publicly criticized Austin Woolfolk, Baltimore's most notorious slave-trader, he was assaulted by Woolfolk as he walked along a downtown street (January 9, 1827). A judge later ruled in the slave trader's favor and ruled him not guilty of assault.
    He worked closely with then Congressman John Quincy Adams against the annexation of Texas, which would provide an opportunity for the extension of slavery.
    When William Lloyd Garrison spoke at his funeral, he stated that while he was not the first American abolitionist, 'he was the first of our countrymen who devoted his life and all his power exclusively to the cause of the slaves.'

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


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    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
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